NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2002A-0097
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2002A-0097 |
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PI: Eric Sandquist, San Diego State University, erics@mintaka.sdsu.edu
Address: 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
CoI: Matthew Shetrone, McDonald Observatory
Title: Towards a Complete Spectroscopic Survey of M67 Blue Stragglers
Abstract:
Binary stars are one of the most important drivers of the dynamics
of a star cluster. Because blue straggler stars are created via binary
mass transfer or stellar collisions and because they are relatively
bright, blue stragglers are among the most easily observable
consequences of the presence of binaries in a cluster. Theoretical
studies predict that surface abundances can distinguish between blue
stragglers formed by mass transfer and by collisions, and two small
spectroscopic studies of the open cluster M67 have observed differences
in C/N and O/N ratios and s-process abundances from straggler to
straggler. Because the relative numbers of mass-transfer stragglers and
collisionally-formed stragglers are an indicator of the frequency of
strong gravitational interactions between stars in a cluster, a complete
survey of the stragglers would constrain the recent dynamical history of
the cluster. We therefore propose to conduct high-resolution
spectroscopy of faint blue stragglers in M67 as part of an ongoing multi-
observatory project to study all of the identifiable blue stragglers in
the cluster.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2002A-0097 |
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